News Release Information

Contacts

Technical information:

Media contact:

PDF

Dallas-Fort Worth Area Employment — August 2018

Total nonfarm employment in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,716,000 in August 2018, up 114,900 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. From August 2017 to August 2018, local nonfarm employment rose 3.2 percent, compared to the national rate of 1.7 percent. (See chart 1 and table 1.) Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that among the 12 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Dallas ranked second in the number of jobs added over the year and ranked third in the annual rate of job growth. (See chart 3 and table 2; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of two metropolitan divisions – separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 72 percent of the area’s workforce, added 91,500 jobs from August a year ago, an increase of 3.6 percent. The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division, which accounted for the remaining 28 percent of the area’s workforce, added 23,400 jobs during the 12-month period, a gain of 2.3 percent.

Industry employment

Professional and business services added 31,800 jobs in the area from August 2017 to August 2018, the largest gain of any local supersector. The Dallas area’s 5.3-percent annual rate of job growth compared to the U.S. increase of 2.6 percent. (See chart 2.) The Dallas-Plano-Irving division added jobs at a faster pace than the Fort Worth-Arlington division, 5.7 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.

Employment in the area’s leisure and hospitality supersector rose by 16,300 since August 2017, the second-largest annual gain among the local supersectors. More than three-fourths of the job gain was in the sector’s largest industry, food services and drinking places (+12,500). The supersector’s rate of job growth in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, 4.3 percent, was more than double the nationwide advance of 1.6 percent.

Local mining, logging, and construction added 15,800 jobs from August 2017 to August 2018. Within the sector, specialty trade contractors accounted for two-thirds of the total gain (+10,700). The 7.3-percent annual rate of increase for mining, logging, and construction marked the fastest rate of local growth since the year ended in January 2015.

Employment was up 14,000 over the year in education and health services in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The area’s 3.2-percent rate of job growth compared to the U.S. rate of 2.1 percent.

Trade, transportation, and utilities, the metropolitan area’s largest supersector, added 12,100 jobs from August 2017. The 1.6-percent rate of local job growth compared to the national gain of 1.2 percent. Locally, employment rose in all three sub-sectors: transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+5,800); wholesale trade (+4,500); and retail trade (+1,800). The increase in local retail trade employment occurred despite an annual loss of 1,700 jobs in department stores.

Four other local sectors had annual job gains ranging from 9,400 to 3,300 from August 2017 to August 2018: government (+9,400), manufacturing (+7,000), other services (+5,000), and financial activities (+3,300). The annual rate of increase in government employment in the local area was 2.3 percent, while nationally, employment was up 0.2 percent. In Dallas, gains occurred in the state and local government jurisdictions.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in August 2018. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with the rates of job growth in 8 areas matching or exceeding the national average of 1.7 percent. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land had the fastest rate of job growth, up 3.7 percent, followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale at 3.6 percent. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had the slowest rate of job growth, 0.8 percent, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (1.2 percent). (See chart 3 and table 2.)

New York-Newark-Jersey City added the largest number of jobs over the year, 136,100. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (+114,900) and Houston (+110,200) also had increases over 100,000 jobs. Chicago had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 36,300 jobs. Annual gains in the remaining eight metropolitan areas ranged from 73,500 in Phoenix to 38,800 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

Over the year, professional and business services added the most jobs in five areas: Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria.

Information lost the most jobs in seven areas: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and Washington. Dallas was the only metropolitan area to have no annual job losses in any supersector from August a year ago.

Metropolitan area employment data for September 2018 are scheduled to be released on Friday, October 19, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

Technical Note

This release presents nonfarm payroll employment estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. The CES survey is a Federal-State cooperative endeavor between State employment security agencies and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Definitions. Employment data refer to persons on establishment payrolls who receive pay for any part of the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. Persons are counted at their place of work rather than at their place of residence; those appearing on more than one payroll are counted on each payroll. Industries are classified on the basis of their principal activity in accordance with the 2012 version of the North American Industry Classification System.

Method of estimation. CES State and Area employment data are produced using several estimation procedures. Where possible these data are produced using a "weighted link relative" estimation technique in which a ratio of current-month weighted employment to that of the previous-month weighted employment is computed from a sample of establishments reporting for both months. The estimates of employment for the current month are then obtained by multiplying these ratios by the previous month's employment estimates. The weighted link relative technique is utilized for data series where the sample size meets certain statistical criteria.

For some employment series, the sample of establishments is very small or highly variable. In these cases, a model-based approach is used in estimation. These models use the direct sample estimates (described above), combined with forecasts of historical (benchmarked) data to decrease volatility in estimation. Two different models (Fay-Herriot Model and Small Domain Model) are used depending on the industry level being estimated. For more detailed information about each model, refer to the BLS Handbook of Methods.

Annual revisions. Employment estimates are adjusted annually to a complete count of jobs, called benchmarks, derived principally from tax reports that are submitted by employers who are covered under state unemployment insurance (UI) laws. The benchmark information is used to adjust the monthly estimates between the new benchmark and the preceding one and also to establish the level of employment for the new benchmark month. Thus, the benchmarking process establishes the level of employment, and the sample is used to measure the month-to-month changes in the level for the subsequent months.

Reliability of the estimates. The estimates presented in this release are based on sample surveys, administrative data, and modeling and, thus, are subject to sampling and other types of errors. Sampling error is a measure of sampling variability–that is, variation that occurs by chance because a sample rather than the entire population is surveyed. Survey data also are subject to nonsampling errors, such as those which can be introduced into the data collection and processing operations. Estimates not directly derived from sample surveys are subject to additional errors resulting from the specific estimation processes used. The sums of individual items may not always equal the totals shown in the same tables because of rounding.

Employment estimates. Measures of sampling error for the total private employment series are available for metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions at www.bls.gov/sae/790stderr.htm. Measures of sampling error for more detailed series at the area and division level are available upon request. Measures of sampling error for states down to the supersector level are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/sae/790stderr.htm. Measures of nonsampling error are not available for the areas contained in this release. Information on recent benchmark revisions is available online at www.bls.gov/sae/benchmark2017.pdf

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated July 15, 2015. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

More complete information on the technical procedures used to develop these estimates and additional data appear in Employment and Earnings, which is available online at www.bls.gov/opub/ee/home.htm. Industry employment data for states and metropolitan areas from the CES program are also available in the above mentioned news releases and from the BLS website at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry supersector, United States and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area and its components, not seasonally adjusted (numbers in thousands)